Category Archives: For translators

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Use old-style Excel and Word menus in new versions of Office

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A common complaint people make when they install Word 2007 (or Excel 2007) or later is that they don’t like the ribbon and prefer the menus used in Word 2003 (or Excel 2003) and earlier. Microsoft insist that things are easier to find in the new version, but many of us beg to differ. For me, my main qualm with the new version is that it takes me longer to browse through all the options than it did with the old system.

Also, certain options are in illogical places. For example, if you want to insert a row or column in Excel you’ll probably look in the “Insert” tab. But you won’t find it. It’s in the “Home” tab. Why on earth is an “insert” option not in the “Insert” tab?

The Swiss company UBit has produced an add-on that creates a ribbon tab called “Menu”, which contains old-style menus. The add-on can be downloaded from here.

Unfortunately it doesn’t allow you to open the menus with the keyboard. And that’s where I come in! I’ve produced a script to be used with UBitMenu that allows you to open up the menus using the keyboard (i.e. alt+f opens the file menu, etc.) and browse through with the cursor keys. Click here to download the script.

Once you have installed UBitMenu and my script, you can browse through the menus almost as easily as in the old version of Word and Excel.

Please note it currently only works with the English menu shortcuts, and it may not work with certain screen resolutions, as it relies on clicks on the correct part of the screen.

If you test it, please report back whether it works for you.

If you would like a version for your own language, please tell me the shortcut letters for the different menus (File, Edit, View, Format, Tools, Table and Window) in your language.

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Invalid French VAT numbers – how to correct them

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On more than one occasion, I have had issues obtaining a valid intracommunity VAT number (numéro de TVA intracommunautaire) from French clients or service providers. The problems fall into two categories:

16-character or 14-character number instead of an 11-character number

Sometimes I have been given a 16-digit or 14-digit number instead of an 11-digit number. This is because the client or service provider is confusing their VAT number with their SIRET number.

The SIRET number is a 14-digit number consisting of a 9-digit SIREN number (e.g. 123 456 789, although the first two characters may be letters) followed by a five-digit NIC number, which usually starts with at least two zeros. An example SIRET number would be 123 456 789 00123.

French VAT numbers begin with the FR prefix, followed by a two-digit control number, followed by the 9-digit SIREN number. So, the company with the aforementioned SIRET and SIREN numbers might have the VAT number FR 12 123 456 789.

A 16-digit number is the result of the client or service provider adding the “FR ##” prefix to the 14-digit SIRET number, instead of to the 9-digit SIREN number.

So, if the client gives you a 16-digit number, such as FR 12 123 456 789 00123, simply drop the final five digits, and you have the intra-community VAT number (assuming the company has such a number – see below).

If the client gives you a 9-digit SIREN number, you can use an online tool to convert it to the corresponding VAT number.

But beware! The number you generate may only be a theoretical number, i.e. the number the client or service provider would be assigned if they applied for an intracommunity VAT number. But the client might not have applied. Before you can issue a VAT-free invoice under the reverse-charge mechanism you must check that they are registered in the VIES system.

See also Invalid Swedish VAT numbers – how to correct them.

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Automatically move footnotes after punctuation, rather than before, in Word

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Texts in Romance languages usually place footnote markers before punctuation. In English we place them after the punctuation. I usually change this on the fly while translating, but I’ve just received a text I outsourced because it was Italian-English and the translator hasn’t moved the footnote markers. No worries! There’s no need to go through the footnotes one by one, as a quick find-and-replace routine in Word will put the footnote markers in the right place (if you prefer, you’ll find a macro at the bottom of the page). Open up the find/replace box, select “Use wildcards”, and enter the following:

Find: (^2)([.,:;\?\!])
Replace: \2\1

It should be safe to use Replace All, but if you want to play safe you can click the Find button once and then keep clicking Replace.

Explanation:
^2 = Footnote reference (same as ^f without wildcards)
[ ] = Look for any character contained in the square brackets. The ? and ! are preceded by a backslash because they normally have special meanings. The backslash tells Word to ignore the special meaning and look for a literal ? or !.
\2 = Replace with the contents of the second parenthesis
\1 = Replace with the contents of the first parenthesis

If you wish to do the opposite conversion, to convert the English format to that used by the Romance languages, run the following procedure, also with wildcards:

Find: ([.,:;\?\!])(^2)
Replace: \2\1

If you have to perform either of these regularly you may want to create a macro. Here’s the code for converting to the English format:

Sub MoveFootnotesForEnglish()
'
' Macro by www.anglopremier.com (thanks to Simon Turner for converting to macro format)
' Moves footnote markers to after punctuation
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "(^2)([.,:;\?\!])"
.Replacement.Text = "\2\1"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub

For those of you working from English to Romance languages, here’s the macro for you:

Sub MoveFootnotesFromEnglish()
'
' Macro by www.anglopremier.com (thanks to Simon Turner for converting to macro format)
' Moves footnote markers to before punctuation
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "([.,:;\?\!])(^2)"
.Replacement.Text = "\2\1"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub

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Bookmarklet tweaks

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I’ve corrected some of the bookmarklets I made available on my main website. All the bookmarklets now lead to the correct site, and the Oxford English Dictionary one now works with all words. There is also a link to a site explaining how to disable speed dial in Firefox, since the bookmarklets don’t work if you are on the speed dial page.

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AHK scripts to change status in MemoQ

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These Autohotkey scripts allow MemoQ users to switch between the Confirmed, Reviewed and Proofread user statuses using the keyboard. The shortcuts are shift-ctrl-z, shift-ctrl-x and shift-ctrl-c. Users of keyboards that don’t have the z, x and c next to each other may wish to change the shortcuts in the code.

; Set "Confirmed"
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
#IfWinActive, memoQ
+^z::
setkeydelay, 20
send, !v{down 6}

sleep 100
send {Enter}
sleep 100
send, +{TAB 6}
send, c

;return to document
send +^{tab}
sleep 100
return

; Set "Reviewer"
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
#IfWinActive, memoQ
+^x::

;from Translations pane
setkeydelay, 10
send, !v{down 6}

sleep 100
send {Enter}
sleep 100
send, +{TAB 6}
send, r

;return to document
send +^{tab}
sleep 100
return

; Set "Proofreader"
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
#IfWinActive, memoQ
+^c::

;from Translations pane
setkeydelay, 10
send, !v{down 6}

sleep 100
send {Enter}
sleep 100
send, +{TAB 6}
send, p

;return to document
send +^{tab}
sleep 100
return

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Website testing

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When translating a website one important aspect translators should include in their budget is website testing. It is the equivalent of reading the proofs of a book before it goes to print. In the publishing industry, translators can spot errors introduced by typesetters who are unfamiliar with conventions in a certain language, such as decimal commas in French, Spanish and other languages vs. decimal points in English.

On a website, clients often overlook menu items when sending website content to the translator for translation. Since the menu items are seemingly simple words, web designers and webmasters may decide to translate the items themselves. Unfortunately things can go wrong, as exemplified below in a screenshot from a website that, otherwise, has a good French translation.

française

The French word for “French” is “français”, not “française”. The latter is the feminine form of the adjective, as in “une entreprise française” (a French company). When used as a noun to refer to the language it should always be spelt “français”, pronounced with a silent s.

Similar mistakes often encountered on websites, but also on hotels and signposts, include “wellcome” instead of “welcome” and “bienvenu” or “bienvenus” instead of “bienvenue”. In Spanish the word “bienvenido” when used as exclamation agrees with the gender and number of the people being addressed, but in French the exclamation is invariable.

However tempting it may be to translate small words yourself, always check with a professional translator to avoid embarrassing mistakes that spoil your company’s image.

Try to work with a translator who is experienced in translating and localising websites. A good website translator can save you time and money by working with the source code, rather than in a Word document that you then have to reconvert to the format of your website, and will thus ensure that all the menu items and headers and footers are also correctly translated. I would recommend arranging a meeting between the person responsible for the web content, the web designer and the translator to discuss the best strategy.

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Nou joc en línia en llengua catalana

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Al lloc web Apterous ja es pot jugar en llengua catalana. És un joc en què cal formar la paraula més llarga possible a partir d’una sèrie de lletres. També té unes rondes que són joc de xifres. Es pot jugar gratuïtament o pagant una subscripció de 20 lliures (uns 25 euros) per a tenir més opcions de joc. L’interfície està en anglès, però un cop que hagueu creat un compte d’usuari podeu jugar partits en català.

Apterous va ser creat per un fan del programa de televisió britànic Countdown. Aquest concurs va ser el primer programa que va aparèixer al canal britànic Channel 4 l’any 1982, i encara continua avui dia amb el mateix èxit que sempre.

El programa britànic va ser inspirat per la versió francesa Des chiffres et des lettres, a partir del qual també es va crear la versió espanyola Cifras y letras. El programa mai no s’ha emès en català, però ara es pot jugar en línia.

Ronda de lletres

Ronda de lletres. També es podia jugar DEDICAT, amb 7 punts.

Es tracta d’una sèrie de rondes de xifres i de lletres. En les rondes de lletres, cal crear el mot més llarg a partir de les lletres triades. En les rondes de xifres, cal arribar a un nombre objectiu sumant, restant, multiplicant i dividint diverses xifres més petites. La versió britànica no inclou la ronda anomenada “Le duel” en francès i “El duelo” en castellà, així que no està inclosa a Apterous.

Vaig començar a jugar al web fa uns mesos, sobretot per l’interès que em va despertar el fet que un amic meu, Ross Lander, apareixia al programa. A Apterous ja es podia jugar en 13 llengües diferents a més de l’anglès (alemany, eslovac, espanyol, finès, francès, gal·lès, grec, hebreu, italià, llatí, neerlandès, portuguès i rus), però no s’hi podia jugar en català. Sabia que hi havia una llista de mots catalans en format obert que es feia servir per al joc Scrabble, així que vaig proposar al creador del web afegir la llengua catalana i ho va fer.

La llista que hem fet servir inclou les formes valencianes i balears de les paraules.

A la versió catalana hem hagut de prendre decisions sobre què hem de fer amb les lletres “especials” del català. Vam prendre les decisions següents:

  • Vocals accentuats: Com a altres jocs de formar mots, els accents s’ignoren. Per tant, no es distingeix entre deu i déu.
  • Ç: És una lletra a part, per tant no es pot escriure la paraula tenaç amb una c normal.
  • l·l: Per escriure un mot amb ela geminada cal tenir dues eles entre la selecció. A l’hora de declarar el mot, no cal posar el punt suspès entre les dues eles però es pot fer. Per tant, a efectes d’aquest joc, si tenim les lletres C, E, L, L, i A podem escriure tant cella com cel·la.
  • NY: Al contrari del Scrabble, no hi ha cap rajola NY. Per a escriure mot amb la grafia NY, cal tenir tant un N com una Y. Si s’hagués inclòs una rajola NY, la paraula banyar s’hauria comptat com un mot de cinc lletres en comptes de sis, i per això preferíem no tenir una rajola NY.
  • QU: Pel mateix motiu que amb la NY, al contrari que al Scrabble en català, la Q no es pot emprar com a QU.
  • K i W: Com que només existeixen en un grapat de mots importats i no adaptats, no s’inclouen en la versió catalana del joc

A l’hora que publico aquest article, encara no hi ha jugadors nadius de català que juguen a Apterous. Però no us preocupeu! Hi ha jugadors tan bons que aconsegueixen fer bons resultats en llengües que no parlen, només aprenent una mica sobre les estructures de les llengües. De fet, en el format de 15 rondes lletres (sense rondes de xifres), al qual he jugat diverses vegades, només tinc el 5è millor resultat amb 108, lluny darrere d’Adam Gillard (un dels millors concursants que ha aparegut a Countdown), que en té 151.

Per entendre com Adam Gillard ha anat aprenent l’estructura del català és curiós mirar la seva llista de mots no acceptats que ha jugat en aquesta llengua. Veiem com ha anant provant paraules per a aprendre la morfologia de la llengua.

D’aquesta manera, podeu preguntar en el xat si algú vol jugar en català. Els usuaris amb subscripció també poden entrenar jugant contra el bots, que són els que tenen un nom que comença amb la paraula “Apterous”.

Així que què espereu? Apunteu-vos-hi. Que tingueu sort. I doneu-me el vostre nom d’usuari perquè pugui podem jugar alguna partideta.

Un cop registrat, per a jugar en català, un cop dins la sala cal anar a “Challenge in a custom format”, “Non-English”, i “Catalan”. Després hi ha quatre opcions:

  • Catalan 15: La versió clàssica. Partit estàndard que té 15 rondes, 10 de lletres, 4 de xifres, i un “Conundrum” (cal trobar el mot de 9 lletres).
  • Catalan 9: Una versió més curta de l’anterior, amb només 9 rondes (6 lletres, 2 de xifres i un “Conundrum”.
  • Catalan letters: Només rondes normals de lletres.
  • Catalan conundrums: Només “conundrums”.
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Football, fútbol, futbol, calcio II: terminology

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In Part I of this series I discussed the expression the beautiful game used to refer to association football (which I will simply call football in the rest of this post). In this part I will look at the terminology mentioned by Joseph Lambert in his own blog post, The Terminology of the Beautiful Game.

The first half of the following table shows the terminology mentioned by Joseph Lambert in English, French and Italian, to which I have included the equivalents in Spanish and Catalan and English definitions.

Entries marked with an asterisk are not specific terms, but are ordinary words that could be used to describe the same situation.

The second half of the table contains additional interesting terms, and are discussed further below.

FrenchItalianSpanishCatalanEnglishDefinition
petit ponttunneltúneltúnelnutmegWhen the ball is played between the legs of an opposing player.
caviar*peach, *gemAn exceptionally good pass.
doppietadobletedobletbrace, double, pairTwo goals by the same player.
coup du chapeautriplettahat-trick, tripletehat-trick, triplethat-trickThree goals by the same player.
pokerpókerpòkerFour goals by the same player.
pokerissimo, manitamanitamaneta*score five, *thrashing, *thrash, *cricket score, *trounceFive goals, but not necessarily by the same player.
but [goal]golgolgolgoalIf you don't know what a goal is you probably won't be interested in this article!
cornercorner, calcio d'angolocórnercórnercornerDitto!
córner olímpicocórner olímpic*goal (straight/directly) from a corner, *score (straight/directly) from a cornerWhen the ball goes straight into the goal from a corner, without touching another player (except perhaps a small touch by a goalkeeper).
arbitrereferí, árbitroàrbitre/arefereeThe main official in charge of a match.
vuelta olímpicalap of honourWhen players walk around the edge of the pitch, celebrating in front of their fans.
cucchiaio, pallonettovaselinavaselinachipA short, high kick going over the head of an opposing player or over the arms of the opposing goalkeeper. Also used as a verb.
grand pont*autopase*autopase*beat, *go (a)roundWhen a player knocks the ball past an opponent on one side and runs around the other side of him or her.
lucarneescuadraescairetop cornerThe area just inside where the crossbar and post meet on the goalposts.
prolongationprórrogapròrrogaextra-timeAn additional 30 minutes of play in knockout matches when the scores are level at the end of ordinary time.
temps additionnelprolongación, descuento, tiempo añadidoprolongació, descompte, temps afegitinjury time, stoppage time, time added onAdditional time added by the referee to compensate for time lost due to injuries, substitutions or time-wasting.

Joseph’s article does not offer a translation of manita. I believe there is no specific term in English. We would either say that a team scored five or use an expression that refers to the fact that a team were well beaten, such as the verbs thrash or trounce. The expression cricket score is often used when a team is banging in the goals. A commentator might say ‘At one stage Arsenal looked like they might make it a cricket score‘. For those unfamiliar with cricket, this is an exaggeration. Even the lowest innings score ever in first-class cricket is 26, but normally a cricket score would be in excess of 150.

An interesting term in Spanish (and Catalan) is córner olímpico, literally an ‘Olympic corner’. In English we have no such term, so we’d just have to say that a player ‘scored straight from a corner’. According to Nicolás Alejandro Cunto’s blog, the term was coined when Argentina scored such a goal against Uruguay in 1924. The Uruguayan team had recently won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris, where they celebrated with a lap of honour, which in Spanish was dubbed a vuelta olímpica – an Olympic lap or tour – a term still used in Spanish – and in Catalan – to this day.

The same article by Nicolás Alejandro Cunto illustrates the much higher proportion of words borrowed from English in Latin American Spanish than in Spanish Spanish. He uses referí (referee) rather than árbitro and wing (winger) rather than lateral.

Another curious Spanish term is vaselina, literally meaning ‘Vaseline’, to refer to what in English we call a chip. In English the word chip is often used as a verb rather than a noun, so ‘marcó con una vaselina’ might become ‘chipped the ball (over the goalkeeper’s head and) into the net’.

Joseph’s article mentions petit pont (small bridge), the French term for a nutmeg. French football parlance also has the grand pont (big bridge), which is when an attacking player knocks the ball past a defender on one side and then runs around the other side of the defender. (If you’re confused by this explanation, watch this exquisite ‘grand pont’ and goal by an 8-year-old called Adam, and if you’re not confused, watch it anyway!) There is no term as precise as this in English. Although a translator could describe the action precisely by explaining the manoeuvre in detail, this is a good example of where it is better to let some information become lost in translation in the interest of maintaining good style (e.g. ‘Ronaldo beat Johnson on the right flank before unleashing a cross to the far post…’).

French refers to the top corner as the lucarne (skylight); Spanish and Catalan use escuadra and escaire respectively, both meaning ‘right angle’. The closer the ball is to the junction between the crossbar and the upright, the more likely a French writer or commentator is to say en pleine lucarne (‘right in the top corner’, or ‘in the very top corner’).

Finally, translators working between French and Spanish or French and Catalan should watch out for a false friend when referring to extra time and injury time (see the table for other synonyms). Extra time is called la prolongation in French, but in Spanish and Catalan prolongación and prolongació mean injury time; extra time is called prórroga and pròrroga respectively.

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Football, fútbol, futbol, calcio I: the beautiful game

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I recently stumbled upon an article by fellow specialist sports translator Joseph Lambert entitled The Terminology of the Beautiful Game. Joseph focuses on terminology in his source languages: French and Italian. My source languages are slightly different – I also translate from French, I don’t translate from Italian, and I translate from Spanish and Catalan – so with his permission I decided to write my own post incorporating his French and Italian terms and adding Spanish and Catalan terms.

I will examine the terms he discusses in a future article. In this post I will look at an expression used in the title of Joseph’s article. The term the beautiful game is instantly understood by English-speaking football fans – at least those in the UK and Ireland – as referring to association football, in the same way that boxing fans will instantly recognise the noble art as referring to their sport. Schott’s Sporting, Gaming & Idling Miscellany, by Ben Schott, lists three other poetic nicknames for sports: the sport of kings (horse racing), the gentle craft (angling), the noble science of defence (fencing) and the Tesserarian art (gambling).

The expression the beautiful game has no direct translation into French, Spanish and Catalan, so a translator working from English into these languages must either repeat the word football or use some other expression to refer to the sport. Spanish has the option of using the calqued translation balompié, which the Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas says “no ha gozado de mucha aceptación entre los hablantes y suele emplearse casi siempre por razones estilísticas, para evitar repeticiones en el discurso” (it is not widely used, and when it is it is nearly always for stylistic reasons to avoid repetition). French, meanwhile, can resort to the expression le ballon rond, which literally refers to the bag of air being booted around the field but is often used as a metonym to refer to the sport. French can also use the slightly informal shortened form foot (French can also remove the suffix -ball from the names of two other sports: handball and basketball).

Another alternative in English is soccer, a word that derives from association football (see next paragraph). I remember soccer being in widespread use when I was growing up as a child in England, but in recent times – perhaps particularly since the 1994 World Cup in the USA – it seems to have fallen out of favour in the UK, wrongly branded an unwelcome Americanism by many; the term was first coined in England. Generally it is used only in headlines (where there is a limit on the number of characters) or when specifically discussing football in America.

Association football is the official name of the sport, so called because it is based on the rules originally devised by the (English) Football Association. The full name is used in contexts where it is necessary to distinguish the game from other codes of football: rugby league, rugby union, American football, Canadian football, Australian-rules football (or Aussie- rules football, commonly referred to as footie in Australia) and Gaelic football. Technically the full name of the sport in French and Spanish is football association and fútbol asociación respectively – and FIFA actually stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association – but these are rarely, if ever, used in those languages. Note that in English it is not unusual for a rugby (league or union) commentator to say something like “that’s excellent football by England” or “that’s excellent use of the football by Wales”.

Watch this space for a follow-up post on vocabulary used to describe the action during matches.

Anglo Premier Translations specialises in sports translations. For more information, visit the main website.

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Let’s stop getting upset about an entirely different market

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A lot of translators get far too upset about certain websites where people are requesting translation services at astonishingly low rates. A good cure for this gripe is to inadvertently end up on one of the large databases of “translation agencies” that some of these sites hand out.

I ended up on one such website several years ago. I asked the site to remove me, which they did, but before long I was starting to receive CVs again, so presumably I’m back on the list. I currently receive approximately two to three CVs per day, all of which are sent to my old e-mail address from my old site, which is no longer visible and redirects to my new site. Curiously some of the candidates claim to have “read about my company”, even though they’re writing to an e-mail address not published anywhere on my website. Not surprisingly, the e-mail is normally sent as a blind carbon copy. In other words, the e-mail is being sent simultaneously to countless “translation agencies”, most of which the applicant knows absolutely nothing about.

Recently I’ve begun to open up some of the e-mails I’m sent, out of curiosity. Doing so has made me understand why such shoddy rates are offered. The vast majority of messages I receive are pitiful. The English is usually terrible, even from people claiming they translate into English. Many claim that English is their native language when the English they use clearly shows that this is a lie. One could argue that it is unfair to judge, say, an English-to-French translator based on the quality of his or her English, although this is debatable, since mastering the source language is also an essential skill. If, however, their e-mail contains incorrect usage of punctuation ,with commas written like this ,[sic] or with spaces before full stops, or with incorrect usage of capital letters, one can expect their work to be shoddy too.

Why, then, do good translators get so upset because a website is offering translations at such low rates? Does the owner of a top-quality restaurant get upset because half a mile up the road there’s a McDonald’s offering a meal and a drink for less than €10?

To illustrate my point, here are some extracts from some of the e-mails I’ve received recently. Comments in square brackets are my own interjections. Needless to say I won’t be hiring any of them for any jobs.

Translator 1. Native language: French.

Dear Madam / Mr . [not looking good already]

Note that my qulifications [oh dear] match greatly with your demand . [bad punctuation already]

I have read about your company , [this is probably not true]and I have sufficient knowledge about translation world .

As you will note in the attached CV that I am :

Firm believer in the Power of Languages and understanding of diverse cultures. From China to the Dominican [in his attached CV he says “From China to the Dominican Republic” but in the e-mail the word “Republic” has disappeared] communication is essential, having lived in four different countries in the last ten years, I have conjugated my background in International commerce and business administration as well as my knowledge of five languages to bring a more in depth approach to each opportunity presented to me.

I should inform you that I am an excellent speaker of French ,English , Portuguese and Spanish , and I use Microsoft Windows , Word , Excel , Power Point , and Internet skills .

I would be very pleased If I have a positive reply .

Regards :

[name removed]

Translator 2. Native language: Chinese

Hello ,,, [no need to read any more!]

Translator 3. Native language: Arabic

My specializations include Translation, Legal , , Proofreading, localization, Copywriting, Ghostwriting, Editing and general

I obtained a BA degree in specialized translation at ALAQAS University I studied one year of postgraduate studies in English Arabic translation. , I worked as translator in many Educational Institutions in my country. I also worked as freelance translator and English proofreader/editor Experienced translator in wide range of field.

Translator 4. Native language: Norwegian

Subject: “Meeting your all languages needs”

Translator 5. Native language: Chinese

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is [name removed] from China.

I engaged in translation when I was 22 years ago and in the Zhongnan University, majored in English.

Translator 6. A translation agency.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Do you spend long time [sic] searching for qualified translators?

Do you like to have the best price?

Do you worry about the translators’ commitment regarding deadlines?

Why do you bear all this while we are ready to do it for you?

[Translation agency name] is really there for your translation agency best choice. [What does that mean?] We offer such a great language translation experience, you never want to go back and look for your own freelancers, volunteers, or in-house translators again. We can beat them down with our lowest rates, better quality, accessibility, tax deductions (you can get rid of high expenses of translation services!), and 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Translator 7. Native language: French

Subject: English into French Translator and Vice Versa

Hello All, [at least he’s honest that it’s a mass mail]

Hope this message finds you well.

My name is [name removed] and I am a French native. I am a freelance translator/reviser since six years. [Yes, I know changing “je suis…depuis” to “I have been…since” is confusing, but if you claim to translate into English this is basic.] I translate from English/Spanish/Italian into French.‎Specialization field: art, culture, literature, creative writing, fashion, ‎politics, economy, social sciences, international relations, technology, ‎web localization, internet.‎
Please find attached to this e-mail a copy of my CV that details my past ‎experience. ‎

If any interest from your side, please let me know I would be pleased to ‎provide you mi services.

Translator 8. Native language: Russian

[The line breaks are in the original e-mail.]

I am a freelancer. My name is Ripsime. My working languages are
English, Russian. My native language is Russian, and due to the fact
that I live many years abroad I use English in my everyday life. I
have more than 8 years of experience as a freelance translator, as
well as I am a graduate of political sciences and international
relations with honors.

Translator 9. Native language: Italian

Subject: My services are punctual ,never delayed ,very accurate ,precise ,with genuine respect to the source. [Enough said, I think.]

Translator 10. Native language: Spanish

[The CV is taken from a template. She hasn’t paid to remove the watermark, and her name has the word “Edit” between her first name and surname! Also, her e-mail appears to have a typo, although I have no way of knowing if that is deliberate.]

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